From the state of the art, a large variety of different retainer elements disposed in seat cushions are known. The retainer elements disposed in the seat cushions serve the purpose of fastening a cushion cover at a seat cushion. To this end, fastening devices implemented in the form of stitching wires are disposed at the cushion cover. These stitching wires are intended to be connected to the fastening element disposed in the seat cushion. During assembly of the cushion cover, the stitching wires are fastened at the fastening elements in the cushion cover either directly or else with the aid of additional connecting elements.
In a simple manner, in the method known from the state of the art, fastening wires are foamed into the seat cushion. This fastening wire is individually formed so as to precisely correspond to the contour of the respective seat and as a rule passes through all fastening positions. This three-dimensionally bent fastening wire is foamed into the seat cushion. A recess is provided at the fastening positions, in order to be able to correspondingly fasten the stitching wire at the fastening element in the foam cushion.
It is a drawback of this embodiment that the wire needs to be individually bent for each seat shape. Moreover, it is necessary to insert the complex wire geometry into the foaming tool. This aspect, however, involves increased complexity of the production process, since the unstable wire structure needs to be inserted in a secure and positionally accurate manner.
In order to solve this problem, document DE 10 2007 008 018 A1 exemplarily describes a fastening element configured as a plate-shaped component. Fastening hooks are arranged in the center of this component. In this regard, it is possible to hook the stitching wire of the cushion cover into the fastening hooks. Thanks to this solution alone a decisive advantage can be attained, since a standard component can be utilized as fastening element for a large variety of different seat shapes.
However, in the implementation of known solutions, comparable to the above-referenced document, two significant drawbacks are encountered. Due to the shape of the clip geometry, the fastening elements can only be effectively made of plastics. On the one hand, this makes the insertion into the tool more difficult. When inserting the plurality of clipping elements, complex robotic operations are required, so as to be able to insert the plurality of fastening elements into the foam body in a positionally accurate manner. Hence, automation expenditure during the production process of the seat cushion is unnecessarily increased and requires the use of special grippers. During utilization of the seat cushion for producing the seat, another drawback is encountered. As a result of the large tolerances in a cushion cover, it is repeatedly necessary to detach the cushion cover from the seat cushion. This gives rise to the aspect that, in case of a clipped-in solution, the clip will frequently break off from the retainer element. In this instance, the entire seat cushion is rendered useless for further utilization, since a means for fastening the cushion cover is no longer available.